The popular jury has already issued its verdict in the trial against the Senegalese Mor Ndao, declaring him guilty of murder, with the mixed aggravating circumstance of kinship and the mitigating circumstance of confession, and another of desecration of a corpse. Thus, they have considered proven the facts denounced by the private prosecution, and later assumed by the Prosecutor's Office and the State Attorney, who finally agreed that the accused sexually abused his partner when he had already taken her life.
Now, it will be the sixth section of the Provincial Court of Las Palmas who will issue the sentence and impose the penalty on Mor Ndao, depending on the facts that the popular jury has considered proven. The Prosecutor's Office has requested 18 years in prison for him, as has the State Attorney, while the private prosecution has finally reduced the sentence to 20 years in prison, the maximum for murder.
These three parties have also requested five months for desecration of corpses and that the accused serve the prison sentence in Spain and, subsequently, be expelled from the country. For its part, the defendant's defense has requested 15 years in prison plus three months for desecration.
The popular jury has unanimously considered proven that Mor Ndao lived with Mara Serighelli, with whom he had a daughter, who at the time of the events was 20 months old. It also considers that the woman had decided to definitively break off the sentimental relationship with the accused since a witness stated so and she communicated it to several relatives.
The popular jury also unanimously considers proven that the woman was "surprised" by Mor Ndao, without her expecting it, "without any prior discussion". Despite the fact that she tried to free herself from the cable, the accused "continued to squeeze tightly, causing her death by asphyxiation", as stated by the forensic doctors during the trial.
Desecration of the corpse
In the case of the desecration of the corpse, eight of the nine members of the popular jury have considered that it did exist. When Mara Serighelli fainted, Mor Ndao took her to the bedroom, "where, in order to continue demonstrating his condition of domination as a man and disrespecting Mara, who was already a corpse, he undressed her from the waist down, pulled up her shirt and broke her bra, exposing her chest and had sexual relations with Mara's corpse, with vaginal penetration and without a condom, even ejaculating inside the vagina".
The only thing that the popular jury has not considered proven has been that the accused drank about ten or twelve beers during the afternoon of the day of the events, since neither the witnesses noticed that he was under the effects of alcohol and the tests, in addition, gave negative.
The crime was committed in the early morning of October 12, 2011 and a few hours later, the accused himself voluntarily appeared at the Civil Guard barracks in Puerto del Carmen, to surrender and confess that he had murdered his partner, of Italian nationality. Both had a daughter of a year and a half, who was in the house when the events occurred.
"What I was saying from the beginning has been recognized"
The lawyer for the private prosecution, Lara La Fontana, has expressed her satisfaction with the jury's verdict. "He has been declared guilty of murder and also of desecration of the corpse. What I was saying from the beginning has been recognized, that Mara did not have the possibility to defend herself and that he desecrated her corpse", she pointed out at the doors of the Arrecife Courts.
This lawyer has found it "very striking" that almost all the facts have been proven "unanimously". "The jury has proven that it was a murder with malice aforethought, in a surprising way and that this person was in his full faculties, that he was neither drunk nor drugged. And he has not killed just anyone, he has been especially bad in having killed his sentimental partner", she pointed out.
The private prosecution has also requested as an accessory penalty the "deprivation of parental authority for the duration of the sentence" and has also requested 30 years of distance with each of the relatives of the young murdered woman, including her daughter, once she has served the sentence. "These are very serious facts and I believe that it is appropriate", La Fontana defended.
The trial, which is the first to be held in Lanzarote with a popular jury, began last Monday and ended on Tuesday. Since then, the jury's deliberation began, which this Thursday has announced its verdict.
After issuing the ruling, the accused left the room guarded by two National Police officers. Before leaving through the door of the detainees, he turned towards the media. Although it was not possible to hear exactly what he was saying, he did reproach them for their work in photographing or recording him during the trial.